IP Selling Coated, SC Paper Business

STAMFORD, CT—International Paper has agreed to sell its coated and supercalendered papers business to CMP Holdings for about $1.4 billion. The business includes two mills in Maine and one each in Michigan and Minnesota, which combined for $1.6 billion in sales in 2005.

The total of the sale is subject to certain post-closing adjustments and is expected to be completed this summer. The purchase price consists of roughly $1.37 billion in cash and $30 million in the form of a 10 percent stake in CMP Investments, parent company of CMP Holdings.

The deal is part of IP’s previously announced transformation plan to focus on uncoated papers, along with industrial and consumer packaging on a worldwide basis. The company has tallied about $9.1 billion from the divestitures of what it determined to be non-core businesses.